China Jones is a 1959 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes short directed by Robert McKimson.^[1] The short was released on February 14, 1959, and stars Daffy Duck.^[2] This cartoon later became rarely shown in the United States due to ethnic caricatures of Chinese and other East Asian people. The cartoon is a spoof of the 1950s TV series China Smith, starring Dan Duryea.

Plot

Daffy Duck is China Jones, an Irish private investigator working in the Far East. He finds a fortune cookie containing a call for help which states: "Help. I'm being held prisoner in a Chinese Bakery, £150 reward" and decides to investigate. This is actually a trap set by a vengeful criminal named Limey Louie, whom Jones had busted before. Several times throughout, Charlie Chung (Porky), a caricature for Charlie Chan, who Jones thinks is a detective, reminds China Jones that he owes him a great deal of money, revealed at the end, after Jones escapes from Limey Louie, to be due to a large laundry bill. When Jones tells Chung "Confucius say, 'can"t squeeze blood from turnip!'", the latter threatens him with a club, telling him "Also say, 'B-better you press shirt than press luck!'" The last scene shows Jones being forced to work for Chung as he speaks rapidly in subtitled "Chinese": "Help! - I'm being held prisoner in a Chinese Laundry!" (in reference to the earlier fortune).

Censorship

In the 1990s, cable network Nickelodeon removed the ending, which is the laundromat scene when Daffy was held prisoner with his faux Chinese rant. The reason is due to offensive ethnic stereotypes, as that cartoon wasn't shown in the United States nor the United Kingdom (although it was released in the latter country on the Looney Tunes Classic Collection VHS in 1995), not even DVD or Blu-ray Disc until WarnerMedia Ride restored a streaming print in 2021. Thus, in the censored version the cartoon ended immediately after Porky's last line, "B-better you press shirt than press luck!"

References

External links

• China Jones at IMDb